It might well come as a surprise to members of the other parties but
most of our current politics and policies are, I believe, liberal and
indeed they have been largely liberal since the 2nd world war.
Perhaps
many would not disagree if I said most of our post-war politics has
been an oscillation between collectivism and individualism. But part of
my point is that individualism and collectivism are actually not
socialist or conservative but rather two extreme forms of the liberal
inheritance. So when the Labour Party embraced the state and the
Conservative Party the unrestrained market, unbeknownst to themselves
both were actually fulfilling a liberal logic that preceded and then
encapsulated their politics and their philosophy.
But rather than
offering a philosophical history to support this claim which I have
done elsewhere – let me begin from where we are now. Is there truly a
post-liberal moment? To argue such is in terms of contemporary politics
to decry its consequences. In the economy in the name of free markets
and prosperity for all we have seen unprecedented concentration of
economic power and the conversation of whole ranks of people to little
more than wage dependent figures who have no real hope of ownership or
genuine options to trade. In society the war on the family and on the
permanence and sanctity of human relations continues. The deep social
dysfunction of Britain with broken families at the bottom and the
inversion of parent child relationships continue apace. In immigration
we have seen massive and almost unprecedented movements of people that
have seen both the skilled and the unskilled cut off the routes to
independence and agency for those living in the lower echelons of
British society. And finally at the top and the bottom of society we see
moral collapse and the erasure of ethos from both institutions and the
personal direction of human beings.
Now this is not to impugn
Liberalism in its entirety, there is a liberalism we need and one of the
great figures of British post-war politics refigured it brilliantly.
Joe Grimond the decisive salvific figure of The Liberal Party in the
1950’s and 60’s was the first to really talk about a localised non
statist form of democracy and economic participation. He spoke about
mutualisation and employee ownership. Most importantly he saw that
individualism was the greatest threat to individual liberty and he
argued for the primacy of the group and association.
Unfortunately
modern liberalism has forgotten these lessons and it has become a
reduced and pervasive form of libertarianism that has corrupted not just
the liberal party – but all parties. And when our politics becomes
simply a eulogy to choice as it seems all politics is nowadays, it
suggests that the foundational and moral act of our society is simply
that of willing and acting –rather than saying what one should will or
what one should act for. The consequences of a malign liberalism are
all about us - if one only believes in individuals then in the resulting
competition a few individuals will win and everybody else will lose
very badly – creating the need for state welfarism to pick up the
pieces.
If we are to escape the disastrous consequences of this
post-war oscillation between collectivism and individualism, then we
must recover a different account of liberty – one founded on morality
and association. Because only if we act in the name of the good of all
can we preserve the good for ourselves and for our families and only if
we believe we have something in common can we create a polity within
which we can differ and be free.
This article has been published in the ResPublica Fringe magazine, a collection of articles and essays from our party conference partners.
Phillip Blond will be speaking
at ‘Broken society or broken politics?’ a ResPublica/ Demos public
fringe series at Labour Party conference: Sunday 30th September, 4.30pm –
5.45pm, Premier Inn Manchester Central, and Conservative Party
conference: Tuesday 9th October, 5.00pm – 6.15pm, the ResPublica
Marquee.